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Yeah, I think I know what you mean Blackcompany. I thought exploration in Skyrim lead to some neat encounters. Like when I found a book in a Forsworn camp which detailed the sorrowful history and culture of the people I'd been carelessly slaughtering up to that point. It really made me see them in a new light, and it was something that was totally unexpected from a Bethesda game (or games in general, really.) It was a pity that such moments were so few and far between all the brainless mouse clicking.

MMO's, at least, have been aware for some time that a segment of their player population view exploration as something they enjoy doing in their games. It's really a shame few really cater to that player segment.

There is the upcoming Wildstar which promises to map the Bartle subtypes to appropriate professions. I'm not convinced they can pull it off, (explorers get to summon steps? WTF?) but at least they're trying.

But that's not what I personally am doing when I'm exploring. I like finding stuff - a cool vista, an unexpected encounter, hidden treasure, maybe a shortcut home - not just exploring for the sake of more exploration.

Now I'm not saying that's why even other folks in this thread explore as well. But it means I don't know how I fit into Bartle's categorisation. I'm not an explorer, I don't fit that box. But then what category do my exploring tendencies go in? Achiever? But I'm not worried about numbers or completion. Socialiser? Clearly not. Killer? No, that doesn't fit either.

I'm apparently an Explorer, but it's hard for me to take the test because all the questions are about "in an MMO, do you..." and "when talking to other people, do you..." when of course I hate MMOs and indeed talking to people.

It dispenses with levllling in favour of "you are what you carry and use" which has always been what I very much prefer.

Levelling is as heliocentric said; a massive player tease; an artificial barrier to playing. Having content limited by skill at playing (which might including finding stuff; not just waiting for it to randomly pop out of an enemy) is a much better, but much harder, way of designing games.

This is why I also bounced right of off binding of isaac. It's whole premise is "play until you randomly get that neat thing which helps you progress". It's basically a one armed bandit machine in disguise.

Well, I do hate raiding with a passion, and largely only did it while drunk, insisting on misdirecting everybody but the main tank while filibustering ventrilo and tabbing out to post on forums, but I did end up second best-equipped hunter on the server when I quit WoW after being top DPS in three consecutive raiding guilds.

Which kinda shows where the challenge level was at for that game.

Last edited by Nalano; 12-06-2012 at 05:59 PM.

NalanoH. Wildmoon
Director of the Friends of Nalano PAC
Attorney at Lawl
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." - Woody Allen